Dictionary View

This page explains how to use the dictionary view of the Egyptian Arabic Dictionary.
The dictionary presents a list of words in alphabetical order, like a conventional dictionary.

Point at the image below for brief notes about each area. Click on an area
for full information about its use.

Form

foo

At the top of the page is an area to specify what word you are looking for.

First, select the Direction for example English to Egyptian, then type in part of
the word in the Search box, then either press Enter
or click on the button.

The Search box accepts several different types of input:

you can type in the first few letters

you can type in the first few consonants: this is the normal way for searching in arabic, but it can also be useful for english if you are not sure about the vowels

if the language is arabic, you can use either arabic or european letters

you can use either the on-screen keyboard or your computer or phone's own keyboard

For example, if you want to find out an Egyptian word that corresponds to the english
word 'food', you first set the From language to english, then you type in the first
few letters, for example 'fo' into the keyword field and press the button.
The Results will be displayed shortly.

On-screen keyboard

If you want to find an arabic word and you don't have an arabic keyboard, you can
use the on-screen keyboard. Use the button in the bottom right to select whether to
show arabic or european letters on the keys- if there is enough space, both are
displayed anyway.

Page up/down

Once you have entered a word, you will see the dictionary starting at that word.
From here, you can use the and
buttons to move up and down through the dictionary.

Results

The following picture shows the results. The page lists up to twenty words
that are similar to the letters that you typed in. Each word is followed by
one or more words in the other language.

Initially, only a summary of the details for a word is displayed.
Click on the button to expand the details,
showing the main forms for the word. Click on the
button to collapse it again.

Point at an item on the image to see brief notes about it. Click on it
for full information about its meaning.

Thesaurus category

Words in the dictionary are divided into a number of categories. Words with similar meanings
are placed in the same category. Click on the category to see all words in the same category.

Language

The displayed code indicates the language of the word. Point the mouse at the
code to see the language name in full.

Word

Arabic words are shown in both arabic writing and either transliterated
or pronounced form: you can use the button at the top to select whichever you prefer.
When you select pronounced, the stressed syllable in each word is underlined.

You can click on the word to see full details of it, including a list of words
with similar meanings.

Grammatical element

The displayed code indicates the type of word, for example noun or verb. Point
the mouse at the code to see the element name in full.

Usage

The usage is a star indicating how frequently the word is used: the options are

- daily

- regularly

- occasionally

- understood but rarely used

- not always understood

no star - unrated

Examples

If the word appears in any examples, the
button is displayed. You can click on it to see the example sentences that use this word.

Verb

If the word is a verb and there are sufficient details in the database,
the button is displayed. You can click on
it to see a full list of all the tenses and cases that are valid for this verb.

Notes

Some words have more than one meaning, for example sheet could be a piece of paper
or something that goes on the bed. The notes explains which meaning this word has.

Play

Click on the button to hear somebody saying the word.

Form

Some words exist in more than one form, for example singular and plural. For most words,
there is a list of the forms necessary to derive all other forms. Next to the word, there is
a code that indicates the type of form, for example perfect or imperfect. Point
the mouse at the code to see the element name in full.

Sidebar

The sidebar is displayed on the left of the screen on computers and below the
search results on phones.

Show transliterated / Show pronounced

Arabic words are displayed both in arabic writing and in european letters. There
are two options for displaying words in european letters- transliterated and pronounced. You can click on this to switch between the two.

For more information about the differences between the two systemd and an introduction to
arabic writing, see Arabic Writing.

Online options

This section contains links to other learning aids that are available online.

This includes other ways of finding words, for example the thesaurus lists
similar meanings, and the dictionary provides an alphabetical list of words
like a normal dictionary.

Help

This section contains links to the instructions for this page, a summary of
abbreviations used on the web site and information about the transliteration
system (writing arabic in european letters), an information about egyptian
arabic pronunciation rules.

Other

This section contains links to other facilities available through the web site.

Dictionary

The egyptian Arabic Dictionary is available in various other formats, for
example apps for Android and iPhone, PDF files, e-books et cetera.

This section contains links to information about these dictionary formats.